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by hopefulbagels



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Best Friends, College, Emotions, Fluff, Friendship, I cried writing this, Multi, Travel, World Travel, amami also loves his friends, everyone just loves everyone, kaede likes to support her friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 20:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12848472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopefulbagels/pseuds/hopefulbagels
Summary: Amami had no intention of breaking the promise he made with his friend's for their future plans but when he gets offered a job he can't refuse he's stuck





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**Author's Note:**

> wowza this is my first fic and its probably gonna suck so if yall have feedback pls give it to me. Personally I love this idea and i just wanted to share it with all of you! :) so please enjoy and tell me what i can do to make this the best it can be!!

Rantarou Amami stared at the small pile of cardboard boxes, laden with water damage, stacked in the doorway of his Hope's Peak dorm room. He checked the date on his phone for probably the fifth time, knowing all too well it was the last day of senior year. This was the day that he and his friends had fantasized about since they were freshmen.

He surveyed the room, which, despite it being roughly the size of a closet, had always been quite cozy. Now, however, it had returned to the prison cell like state he had found it in at the beginning of the year. The only things that he hadn't packed away were the cheap bed frame and a collection of Polaroid pictures of varying conditions pinned to the wall. Amami wandered over to see the pictures he had taken with his friends over the years at Hope's Peak.

While scanning the pictures, the memories washed over him like one giant sentimental wave. He thought about his three closest friends he made at Hope's Peak, Kaede Akamatsu, the determined, loyal pianist, Shuichi Saihara, the skittish and kind detective, and Kokichi Ouma, the slightly annoying but still endearing "supreme leader."

He remembered the nights they caught the midnight train downtown and that Baby Metal concert that Ouma had to see. He remembered the parties they had all attended together, often not coming home until well into the next morning.

He pulled the thumbtacks out of the wall and watched as the photos fluttered to the ground until there was only one photo left. Amami pulled it off the wall and came face to face with his and his friends' much younger selves smiling out at him. The first picture we ever took as friends...

Ouma had his dorky glasses that he had broken less than a week later, and Kaede was actually following the dress code. He noticed Saihara grinning nervously behind the black hat he used to wear, and himself in the corner of the photo with bangs that covered nearly half of his face and only one silver ring in his ear.

He thought about the promise he made to his friends about the years to come and felt a pang of guilt and selfishness. It had been Saihara's idea to live locally. He had told Amami he wanted to stay as close to his friends as possible, partly out of fear that he wouldn't make any new ones at university, but also so he wouldn't leave the old ones behind. It was all fine for Amami, who had planned on taking a gap year anyway, until he had gotten that email. The email that would throw a wrench in his future as well as his closest friends'. He still wondered how he would ever tell them...

He let out a long, low sigh and placed the collection of pictures in the top box. Soon after there was a buzz in his sweater pocket and he pulled his phone out to see a simple "I'm outside" from Saihara. He had promised to help Amami move his belongings from the dorm building back to his above average suburban home he shared with his barely there parents and twelve sisters. He picked up the first box. He had better get started.

•

About ten minutes later, Amami climbed into the passenger seat of Saihara's jet black car after moving his musty cardboard boxes of oddball t-shirts, too tight jeans, basement smelling records, and deteriorating paperbacks into Saihara's trunk.

"Hey, Amami!" He was caught off guard by Saihara's cheery demeanor. "Is that it? I wouldn't have expected you to be able to move all your things in one trip."

Amami sighed and laughed nervously. "I moved a lot back during spring break." For some reason whenever he was talking to Saihara alone he was uneasy and on edge. He planned every sentence and action with care, taking every necessary precaution not to upset the detective, as if he didn't already have enough to worry about. He supposed it was because Saihara was still somewhat sensitive, despite becoming more outgoing over the years.

As Saihara pulled out of the parking lot, he noticed the gritty indie rock that Saihara must have known was his favorite softly flowing from the sports car's sound system. He smiled to himself. Saihara always seemed to know just what he liked. The car ride was silent for a while until Saihara spoke up. "You got Kaede's message, right?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I did." He hadn't. This caused him to immediately check his phone to see Kaede's contact with the little music note emojis she added to his phone herself popping up with it. "Coffee on 12th street? 4:30?" With one hand, he hastily replied "olay" that had been saved and reverted to the correct spelling by auto-correct before it had delivered. After the two had deposited Amami's belongings back at his house, with hasty hellos to the sisters that were home, Saihara turned the corner in the direction of the coffee shop. After glancing at Amami, Saihara broke the silence once again.

"You know, Amami, I'm really grateful for friends like you and Kaede." Amami eyed Saihara from the side. The dark haired detective seemed to falter for a second. "And Ouma too. It's just really comforting to know you guys won't be leaving the country or doing anything wild just for me." Saihara's cheerful words felt like a harpoon speared through his chest. He let out a strained laugh.

"Of course, Saihara. We'd do anything for you." He prayed that it didn't sound too forced. Amami could only imagine the hell that was about to break loose when he would tell his friends about the task he would have to take up for the upcoming year.

Saihara effortlessly parallel parked on the street curb in front of the coffee shop. A bit further down, and a bit more sloppily parked, Kaede climbed out of her pale pink convertible with Ouma having to take two steps to her every one. Amami sighed and rehearsed what he was going to say to his friends one last time in his head before exiting Saihara's car. You can do it.

After sitting down at the small wooden table that Amami and his friends always chose when coming to this particular coffee shop, Amami's three friends started catching up. Lost in thought about the email, Amami stared down at the foam in his cup. He didn't think he could look any of them in the eye.

Soft jazz filled the establishment along with the chatter of the people coming and going. Across from him sat Kaede, talking rather animatedly about her open audition for the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra before applying to Juilliard in New York. Even though she would eventually leave them when her English got good enough, she would still have time.

Loud slurping noises started to the right of Amami, who looked across to Ouma sucking a straw, rather harder than necessary, in a cup that showed residue of a lavender colored drink once being held in it. The small purple-haired boy eyed Amami's latte and asked in his loud, whiny tone, "Are you going to drink that?" In response, he slid the still foamy latte across the table into Ouma's greedy hands.

"So, Amami, what are your plans for the next year?" He could only look at Kaede with what he hoped wasn't too sad of a look. Now would be the perfect time to tell them but what to say. He racked his brain to find the perfect version of how to say that he broke the promise, he'd be leaving, he'd be betraying his closest friends. He sighed. Just get it over with, he thought. Now or never. He ran his hands over the surface of the table, silver rings rubbing into the wood.

"There's no easy way to put this but..." he took a last long, deep breath- "I'm leaving." The words hung in the air like heavy fog. Kaede just stared at him, mouth and eyes slightly stretched in shock. He looked over to see Ouma paused, mid-sip of his latte, with wide eyes. After what seemed like an eternity, he turned to look at Saihara, only to see the detective looking like someone just shot his dog.

"Y-you're l-l-leaving?" His heartbroken tone felt like a bullet of ice had shot Amami through the heart. He hadn't heard Saihara stutter since sophomore year. He blinked and took a second to regain his composure.

"You guys remember the photo essay we had to submit at the end of last semester... and how- how mine was published? Well, I-" he dug his phone out of his pocket to show his friends the email- "I was asked by this magazine if I would go on a journalism trip and document my travels through photos a-and submit them and-"

Kaede cut him off. "When will you be back?" Amami could tell by the looks on their faces that they wanted it to be only days or weeks, but he knew he had to tell them the truth.

He muttered to his hands, "I should be back a- a year from now."

Ouma spoke next, a lot softer than normal. "When do you leave?"

"I fly out to Milan next Saturday." Saihara said nothing, which worried and pained Amami. He knew that Kaede and Ouma would eventually adjust, but poor Saihara would probably never recover. All the words being spoken were painful to Amami, and he knew they were painful to his friends as well. Time had stopped for the four of them while the rest of the world kept moving at normal pace.

Amami looked at Saihara. "I'm really sorry Saihara it's just, I need this, my family needs this. It's a money thing too, you know, and we need-"

Saihara just nodded. "No, I get it. I'm glad you got this opportunity, really. It'll just be hard getting used to life without you." He let out a small laugh "I go from practically living with you to not seeing you for a year. It's just- I just-"

"I know." Amami could hear Kaede and Ouma already planning the sendoff. He reassured himself that everything might end up okay, that in a year things would carry on just as they had planned. They would live in Tokyo and eventually buy that apartment on the strip and go out every night and be together and just be there. At least, he hoped they would be.

"I guess I should pack my things then." Amami straightened his tie with a sad smile, and left without another word.

•

Amami could feel the breeze through his hotel window. The Shanghai night air smelled like wet pavement and cigarette smoke. It had been three months since Amami had left Tokyo. He had lived out of a suitcase for months, from Milan, to Sicily, to Istanbul, Sochi, Cairo and Bejing before finally resting in Shanghai. He was near exhaustion and running out of money. A day didn't go by when he didn't look at the wallpaper on his phone, a selfie on top of the lake cliff he and his friends climbed the past summer, and miss them achingly.

The bubbly ringtone on his computer indicating an incoming Skype call snapped Amami out of his reverie. He dashed across the room and impatiently tapped the answer button. It wasn't long before the familiar faces of his friends glitched onto the computer screen in front of him. Amami's face split into the widest he had smiled in weeks.

Between Saihara's intense university studying, Kaede's travel schedule with her orchestra, Ouma's somewhat legal plans to possibly take over the world, and Amami's insane regimen of relocating a new hotel every two days, it's been hard finding a time when they could all talk. He could hear an ear-shattering noise followed by an "Ouma, stop that" before the camera was picked up to reveal Kaede's grinning face.

"Sorry, the service in Shanghai is awful." Amami greeted the pianist. Though the lagging screen was stuck on a blur that matched Kaede's blonde and pink color palate, he could tell she was rolling her eyes. The camera moved violently to reveal a navy blue painted bedroom with Amami's three best friends piled on the crisp white bed.

"It's so good to see you," Saihara sighed, a smile gracing his face. Amami found himself smiling with Saihara as he ran a hand through his messy, unwashed hair. He heard Ouma yelling from his position laying on Kaede's lap, "How's China, Amami?"

"China is actually not as horrible as I thought it was going to be." Kaede clasped her hands and leaned in toward the camera, stifling Ouma's face in her oversized Tokyo Symphony Orchestra sweatshirt she probably paid too much for.

"On a scale from one to ten, how nice is it?" she asked with sparkling eyes. Amami fiddled with the necklace his friends had given him as a going away gift.

"It's nice but not Milan nice." A collective giggle came through the phone line. "How's orchestra?"

"Oh my god, it's crazy. Just today, my conductor said if we don't..."

Amami sat with his face resting in his hands, listening easily to Kaede's chatter filled with musical terms he barely knew, Ouma's tales of mischief and Saihara's insightful comments now and then. He sighed, a smile lingering on his face. This was where he really belonged. The light from his aging laptop mingled with the orange and purple glow oozing from the Shanghai nightclubs.

"Okay, okay. Ouma, shut up. We have something really important to tell you," Kaede chirped, pure excitement on her face. Amami leaned in a little closer to the laptop camera.

Amami furrowed his brow. "What?"

"So, me and Ouma and Saihara were thinking and after a lot of talk-"

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker and the laptop screen froze into a solid blur. With widened eyes Amami smacked the keyboard of his computer.

"What! No!" he yelled at the computer. "Come on come on come on!" He tried to coax the programming out of its frozen state but the screen turned black and the laptop shut down. Amami angrily slammed the computer shut, not caring that he didn't have enough money to buy a new laptop if he broke this one. "Damn power outages and stupid fucking long distance calling."

He sat at the desk with his head in his hands, pulling out the Polaroid he had saved from freshman year from his wallet. He stared at the crumpled photo, a deep crease running through the center separating himself and Saihara from Kaede and Ouma. It was times like these he wished he had never agreed to this job. It had only been three months and he missed home terribly. Why couldn't he have just stayed?

Amami looked at the digital clock that flashed a bright green 12:45. He left for Bangkok in 3 hours and was terribly exhausted. With tired hands and eyes, he collected the pieces of luggage strewn about the tiny wallpapered hotel room and threw them into his bag, setting his camera on top. He figured that he might as well check out now and at least get something to drink before hailing a cab to the airport.

•

Amami walked throughout the Suvarnabhumi Airport sad, unkempt, and jet lagged as hell. He had to wait for it to be at least 7:00 for the cab services to start running again. He cursed under his breath and walked away from the deserted airport.

With his backpack on his back, his puffy blue coat tucked under his arm, and his suitcase rolling behind him, he set out to find a place to develop his pictures from Shanghai. I'm so tired I feel like I could just drop right here. Maybe I can get some sleep in a few hours...

While standing at the security checkpoint for what seemed like the second hour in a row, he heard a bubbly female voice call out. "Is that him?" Amami stopped for a second and blinked, then shook his head. A lot of girls sound like that. A few minutes later, another voice joined the first.

"Amami! Amami!" He must be delusional. Probably from the intense sleep deprivation he contracted ever since he left Tokyo. He turned to look where he heard the voices coming from anyway. Watch, there won't even be anyone there. He looked over his shoulder only to see an indistinct crowd. I knew it.

"Rantarou Amami!"

He turned his head the other way to see a blonde girl in ripped jeans and a pink sweatshirt standing next to a smaller boy with wild purple hair. There was someone else standing near them, a skinny boy with dark blue hair and wide eyes. They were all waving violently and smiling... at him. Could it be? No, it wasn't. There's no way. He was in Bangkok at 5:30 in the morning, miles and miles away from Japan.

Amami wiped his eyes to erase the hallucination he was having of his friends. His vision swam back into focus to see the group of people that resembled his friends still standing there and waving at him. It really was Kaede, Ouma, and Saihara! But why were they here? What were they doing in Bangkok? All the hows and whys and wheres left his mind as he dropped his suitcase and coat and ran toward them, his hair flying back and backpack bouncing up and down with each stride. He was violently stopped by Kaede's fierce hug.

"I can't believe it's actually you guys!" He said, out of breath, into Kaede's shoulder. He felt Ouma join them from the side and Saihara from the other. He took a step back to meet the gaze of his friends.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have things to do? Why did you come all this way?"

Saihara gave him a small smile. "We thought we'd pay you a visit." He looked into Saihara's eyes. He couldn't believe that his friends boarded a plane and left home just for him.

"But that's not all!" Ouma broke the silence. He pulled three plane tickets out of his pocket. "We're coming with you!" Amami couldn't process what had just been said to him. He physically pinched himself to wake up from what he knew was some bizarre dream.

"Y-you're coming with me?" He could hardly form the words into a sentence. "What do you mean?"

Ouma just rolled his eyes. "You can be so dense sometimes. It means exactly what you think it means."

Kaede blinked at him. "You don't remember us telling you over the Skype call?" That stupid Skype call.

"I- it cut out before you could tell me." Kaede just hugged him again and giggled.

"Well, the important part is, we're here now. We're finishing your year of travel with you!"

"But- but don't you have your stuff to do?" Amami looked from Kaede to Ouma to Saihara.

Saihara smiled and spoke first. "I had taken so many college courses in high school that I have enough credits to finish the year so I really don't even need to be at university until the next fall."

Amami looked at Kaede next, who sighed, "It was hard, but I decided that supporting my friends is more important than being in this stressful orchestra." She giggled. "It's not like I'm the only pianist there!" Amami laughed, partly in shock and partly in relief.

Ouma just shrugged. "Who says I can't lead on the go? I can take over the world easier if I see more of it!" He laughed, completely oblivious to Saihara's disapproving look.

They made their way over to the terminal where they had to wait to be taken to the hotel. It would be at least another hour before the cab would show up at the airport. Everyone set down their luggage and patiently waited in the cavernous, echoing airport.

For the first time in a while, Amami thought, that everything was right. With Kaede quietly scrolling through Twitter, Ouma talking to himself about utter nonsense, and Saihara laying his head on Amami's shoulder, trying to catch a few minutes of rest, he realized that he was home, even if he was 2,000 miles away from Tokyo.


End file.
